I was going to mention these stupid commercials. In the one where the guy says, “I’m good” they actually do not notice their SUV is directly on the edge of a drop-off until they start to walk forward. Oh, yeah, you guys belong on this trail al right.
If so, I guess the ads are a public service if they influence the “bad idea” drunks to actually make the effort to purchase Jack Daniels, instead of merely downing whatever might be handy (antifreeze, rubbing alcohol, Sterno, etc.).
Seems like a slippery slope, though. If the “irrational decisions” train keeps a rollin’, can meth and/or shooting up with heroin be far away?
Sounds like those SUV commercials would be a natural fit for combining with the aforementioned Jack Daniels commercials…
I was watching the Quest Channel and got hammered with three Medicare Advantage commercials in a row. One from that cranky old lady, Martha, and one each from Joe Namath and Jimmie Walker.
Hmm, maybe hammered is the best way to get through these commercials.
“Robbert” 
demonstrates that he has no face under that mask:
It wasn’t an infomercial, it was a standard 30-second commercial. It wasn’t in prime time though, being after 11PM ET, so maybe that’s the difference in what they decide to air.
Anybody mention the new Meta commercial yet? A group of youngsters (clearly the demographic Facebook’s new parent company is desperately trying to reach) is in an art museum checking out a Rousseau-like painting of a tiger taking down a water buffalo, its jaws clamped around the neck of the buffalo, which is clearly in its death throes.
Suddenly the painting comes to life, the tiger says “this is the dimension of imagination” and the tiger and buffalo start bopping to some techno music. Some baboons and toucans join in along with the kids who are now immersed in the ‘metaverse’ of the painting, all bopping along to techno. A tag line appears saying “This is going to be fun”.
Whaa…? What exactly is going to be fun? Why does the commercial start out with a brutal depiction of a tiger killing a buffalo? If the idea is creating a virtual reality that is fun and magical, why a jungle with a killer tiger? The whole commercial, while cleverly executed, has a feel of incoherence and desperation to its tone.
The tiger eating the kids? I’ve FFed that commercial a couple of times, I may to actually watch it once - didn’t know it was for Meta (which is of course the point of FF).
So that’s what’s that’s for? Even the times I wasn’t able to FF I just tuned it out. Now I hate it more.
We saw that commercial last night. My first question was why was there a tiger in the same jungle as a water buffalo and mandrills?
That commercial totally misses ALL its target demographics.
The sub-par animation, the clueless writing (you’re touting “imagination” with very unimaginative copy)… and that “techno”? It screams “This is what middle-aged overweight white Ad Executives think kids listen to”. The kids themselves fall into that category, too, looking all squeaky-clean and mindlessly hypnotized by whatever the product is…
… I had no idea what this ad was for the first time I saw it. I assumed it was for some cheapo cable channel Kidz Kreate!!! craft show…
I think it’s amusing that Facebook has gone the way of car companies like Toyota and TV networks like CBS; their audience is aging and they’re desperately trying to get the kids to buy their product.
Dave Barry once wrote about the conflicting messages in pharmaceutical ads:
- You really need to be taking this medicine right now!
- This medicine will probably kill you.
No shit!
Especially when one of the listed side effects is the exact thing the drug is supposed to be used for!
“Use Mxtpxlt for to treating suicidal ideation. Side effects include heart failure, kidney failure, suicidal ideation, suicide, death, and death-like symptoms.”
This has become a running joke in my family when we play Scrabble. Invent a crazy word and we’ll start listing side effects that the drug so named causes.
To be fair (not that it’s essential), a lot of the potential side effects are relatively rare or not definitively linked to the drug being promoted.*
If you looked up everything ever prescribed to you in the Physician’s Drug Reference, a massive tome that is hard even for M.D.s to stomach, the lengthy list of side effects would have you rejecting everything except aspirin, until you found out that the list of aspirin side effects from annoying to deadly probably runs a good two pages or more.
*I’d be happy if all direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads were again banned.
Yeah, if side effect warnings were applied to food, it might look something like this:
DELICIOUSLY SWEET RED RIPE STRAWBERRIES!
(Warning: in allergic individuals, can cause anaphylactic reaction leading to systemic hives or rash and swelling of the extremities; in extremely rare cases, can lead to asphyxiation and death.)
A simple “Hold my beer!” or “Hey, y’all, watch this!” would suffice.
Caught another one in the same string the other day with Danny Glover. Dec. 7th cannot come quickly enough.
An empty head behind empty frames.
I’m mildly ashamed to admit that sometimes I yell things about forever boxes at the TV when dear old Martha’s ad plays more than once per hour.